1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the area of television (TV) devices. More particularly, the present invention is related to hybrid architectures of TV receiving devices utilizing a minimum amount of hardware to facilitate the execution of software modules in a computing device so as to realize a TV receiver to receive both analog and digital TV on the computing device.
2. Description of Related Art
It is common to see people carrying a portable computer wherever they go. A portable computer allows a user to be connected from anywhere at anytime via the Internet. As computers are getting more and more powerful in terms of computing power (e.g., memory and processing speed), the expectation on a computer is beyond what a computer was originally designed for. With a powerful processor (e.g., Pentium) and an appropriate amount of RAM (e.g., 1 Gbytes), a computer can be used as an entertainment device, allowing a user to play a game alone or with others, download media files from somewhere and conference with anyone from anywhere.
A new trend is to make a computer perform like a TV receiver. Pinnacle Systems, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. offers a device, called PCTV Pro USB, that allows a user to watch live TV on a computer whenever or wherever the user wants. The device, attachable to a computer, includes all necessary hardware and firmware to receive live TV signals and process the signals before the signals are presented on the computer screen via a USB port thereof.
In the TV arena, besides the traditional analog TV broadcasting that has been around for nearly 80 years, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is being promoted. DVB is proposed to offer better reception and especially good for receivers on the go. Accordingly, devices that enable a computer to receive analog TV are being expanded to include more complicated hardware so that such devices are capable of receiving both analog and digital TV. However, similar to those devices designed only for receiving selected types of analog TV standards (e.g., NTSC, PAL or SECAM), these expanded devices are also labeled, for example, as DVB-T or ATSC, indicating they can receive digital TV in only selected standards but not all. In other words, a device for one type of digital TV (e.g., DVB-T) becomes unusable when the device is brought into an area being serviced with digital TV in ATSC. In reality, there are more standards in digital TV than that in analog TV. Although it is possible in theory to have a receiver capable of receiving digital TV in all standards, the current approach, primarily in baseband chip designs, would be too costly as the chip would have to include all circuits for all types of digital TV. Even such chips were ever designed, they would become obsolete immediately whenever a new digital TV standard is adopted.
There is, thus, a great need for a TV receiver that would never become obsolete and be readily updated whenever a new digital TV standard is adopted. Further such updating shall happen at a minimum cost and reception of a new TV standard is ready in seconds.